When is it okay to violate a woman’s body? The answer is NEVER.
Yet throughout history, RAPE has been used as a means of war in conflict zones. As men and boys step out to fight or are forced to fight, they leave behind vulnerable women and girls, who often fall prey to atrocious violent acts. In most cases these attackers are left to roam free while the women have to cope with the whole package that comes with the defiling of their bodies/mind/spirit/soul: STDs (most likely HIV/AIDS), unwanted and unplanned pregnancy, stigma attached to rape.
The mass rape in Yugoslavia prompted the international community to categorize it as a war crime which helped lead the path to punishing those who committed this act.
- Bosnia-Herzegovina: Muslim women were used as a tool for ethnic cleansing by the Serbian men. Women, especially teenage girls were raped, so they could bear the “ENEMY’S CHILD.”
- Rwanda: Almost all of the girls that survived the attacks by the militia were found to have been raped. Many of these teenage girls ended up abandoning their children and/or committed suicide as they were ostracized by their families and the community.
- Mozambique: Young boys who were subject to traumatizing violence themselves were forced to rape girls by using death threats.
- India/Pakistan: Kashimiri women are often taken hostage and raped by militant groups in order to get to the male relatives. In addition to this they have to deal with the threat of rape (and the act itself) by Indian security forces who are trying to intimidate the local civilians.
- Haiti: Under the former regime of Cedras rape was used as a means of political repression, where women activists, members of the opposition party, or the female relatives of the opposition were subject to rape.
- Somalia: The rival clan members threatened women with rape if they refused to give up their husbands.
- Bangladesh: Estimated 200-450 thousand women were raped in the fight for independence in 1971. This was done so that the women could bear the “ENEMY’S CHILD.”
- Congo: The Hutu Interahamwe militia (the ones that killed the Tutsis in Rwanda) pillaged the womenfolk as they took many child soldiers to fight the bloody war. Many women were assaulted sexually for days, weeks, months only to be discarded at the end.
- Uganda: The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) abducted many children both boys and girls. The girls are repeatedly raped and often come home bearing the children of their captors.
- Sudan: In Sudan’s bloody civil war, the Janjaweed (Arab militia) kidnapped, raped and killed the women in scores. One eye witness described the events to Amnesty international: he witnessed the Janjaweed singing as they raped. This was a happy event for them, another instance to show the southern Sudanese that they were nothing but slaves in their view.
To this list we can add Vietnam, Nepal, Burma, Peru, Chad, etc. Many of these events are in the past and so many more in the present and there will be many more in the future if this is not addressed properly.
Women and children are most vulnerable to these vicious acts. Nearly 80% of the 53 million uprooted due to wars (both IDP’s and refugees) are women and children. These brutal crimes have left many women infected with STD’s, led to them being trafficked for sex and slavery, homeless, suicidal and helpless. Education is one of key elements to eradicating violence and ignorance.
Is there something we can do to prevent these crimes from taking place? We probably can’t eradicate it completely in the near future (maybe not even in our lifetime, which I hope is not the case), but we have to start somewhere. We can attempt to set up the foundation which can be built by the future generations to come. We have a voice. It’s time to stand up and speak out against what we know is inhumane and atrocious.
Where we could start:
International Rescue Committee
Please add any sites that would enable us to make this world a better place…
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Rape is horrible, and should be rightly condemned as a human rights abuse. Has anyone ever read the book, “Rape Culture?” I’m thinking about buying it.
Dunno if this would help make the world a better place but it could be a start…
I thought this one, although HORRIBLE, would be interesting to read….
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/.....index.html
Thank you so much for posting this website. I am always touched by others like you who care. We need to remind ourselves that we are also not immune to this international problem. During past few years, our own goverment recognized that we do unfortunately have this war in our own backyard, thanks to the media about deaths of Nicole Brown and Laci Peterson. Movement in the United States by women activitists and their allies have made great strides, but the work is not done yet. We still hear about women getting killed by their partners every day in the newspapers, television news, and magazines. Even Deaf women are still getting killed every year. This is an ongoing fight to make sure we do not become victims of such terrible crime. While we work with other countries’ crime against women and children, we cannot forget what is also happening in our own backyard.
Julie Rems-Smario, Executive Director
DeafHope
http://www.Deaf-Hope.org
Thanks for bringing this up. Sadly, the country leaders and influential politicians do not make this a main issue. Women and children all over the world suffer so much from war-related crimes. It’s just appalling. But, it’s also a grave problem even when there’s no war. This cannot be emphasized enough that this happens anytime, war or not. Sex slavery has skyrocketed in Asia and India. HIV infection in Africa among women and young girls has risen to abymsal levels. Even our very own battle against domestic violence and sexual assault in America isn’t abating anytime soon. Globally, this issue gives very little voice to women and girls. So very few cases have been brought to justice. But, it’s reassuring to know that there are quite a number of organizations working on that.
Here are a couple more great sites:
CARE
Women War Peace
Feminist Majority Foundation
V Day
Women’s Edge Coalition
There are so many others. But, one more site that’s great for young girls to read and learn.
Statistics
Anatomy is destiny. Get over it or get thee to a nunnery. Or convert the pill into aerosol spray and replenish the ozone layer with this cocktail. Then the ladies can just sit back and enjoy it.
You’re disgusting, and I hope someone bans you.
Very few people leave me speechless and you are definitely one of them and not in a good way…
let’s see a picture of your anatomy before it meets its destiny…
I see a Bobbit in your destiny, JH.
Please do not forget the male rape(s), too!! Young males are also victims much as teenage girls.
Lawerence of Arabia was raped by the Turks as part of teaching him the lesson.
Several Iraqi teenage boys had been raped by the U.S.-led coaltion.
Roman soliders from the Roman Empire usually raped Jewish women to borne “bastards” and whatever it called for gals.
Rape seems an effective warfare than demolishing enemy’s residence. Raping and borning the bastard would leave the lifetime emotional and pyschological scars.
How sad and unnecessary!
Robert L. Mason (RLM)
Thank you for shedding light on this topic as well. Somewhere along the line stories of men who have been raped have not garnered as much limelight as it’s counterpart. Thanks for bringing this to our attention as well.
While the colonies like New Hampshire and others before 1776, British troops and British tax collectors (also some Lords) would rape the people of their food for winter, their wives and their daughters. There were no such thing as “bill of rights”, no entry warranty ..nothing! Troops would ransack people’s home for their livestocks and food as they please. Now imagine that happening over 150 years (that’s for New Hampshire as a colony) while paying taxes to the British (spit!).
That’s a lot of generations to go on in over 100 years before they decided to fight for independence from British. (sorry for off topic but still related to being raped while there’s conflict going on)
Read “S” by Slavenka Drakula (sp). It’s a novel about a group of women being systematically raped in the Balkans in the 90s.
Human is a fragile psyche - defiling one’s body has to be the worst thing and easy to intimidate. That’s a power trip. I wouldn’t know where to begin. reduce war, civil strife? early intervention?
I would prefer that you stick to deaf-related issues.
What, is the subject too uncomfortable for you?
What, is politeness too impossible for you? A simple “Why do you feel this topic is inappropriate?” would have been a better question to ask. A confrontational manner is often the reason why many Deaf women are afraid to express themselves on this issue.
How do you know it’s a she?
I would prefer to cover all issues, deaf or otherwise…
Rape can be construed as deaf-related, because it’s a crime against all humans, deaf or otherwise.
Yes, rape. Even I did a blog series about rape and deaf schools, including Gallaudet. Awareness on rape need to be brought forward again, and again and again to remind people not to take this lightly.
http://kokonutpundits.blogspot.....96044.html
http://kokonutpundits.blogspot.....er_26.html
http://kokonutpundits.blogspot.....er_02.html
Needless to say I got slammed for talking about rape at Gallaudet.
Great posts, McConnell. I’d like to share that deaf girls and women may not have equal access to all the information that could help them to protect themselves from sexual assault. Deaf schools, agencies, and individuals can take action by teaching facts, not only about sexual assault (what it is, who does it, why it happens, etc.), but also how to avoid it (refusal skills, assertiveness training, self-defense, etc.). Education should begin as early as possible, even elementary kids can learn to tell the difference between bad touch and good touch. Knowledge is power. I’m told that some colleges have sexual assault awareness workshops, but they are optional and not mandatory. Drug and alcohol abuse is such a major factor in the likelihood for sexual assault to occur. I would really like to see Gallaudet, and every other college, provide more alcohol-free events. Yet even for a very assertive young deaf woman, it would be tough to call a spade a spade in the insular environment of Gallaudet, though.
Not only that abusing drugs and alcohol or sexual harrassments/attacks while on campus ruins lives it also ruins your chances to graduate with better grades (or graduate at all). If Gallaudet can institute a zero-tolerance attitude on these things, perhaps the educational environment would be a bit wee better raising the educational standards in the process.
If not that, then institute a mandatory course on drug and sex abuse for all new students. These people need to be informed and armed with these information the day they set foot on campus.
Actually, there’s some reports which state that zero-tolerance policies rarely if ever work. My college was a hearing school and we ran by the honor system. We did have some problems, but we took care of them using a student-run judicial system. I think we worked out a bit less violent than most… but then we were also frat-free.
I agree with Joseph here, zero tolerance doesn’t work. Young people need to learn that there are better choices they can make besides using drugs and alcohol, and it doesn’t happen overnight. Resisting peer pressure is a challenge for anyone, that’s why modifying the environment can work well. Developmentally, college age kids are still working on thinking for themselves and using reasoning to make choices, and knowing that there could be harsh consequences isn’t a deterrent.
What books and newspapers did you get your information from?
Did you read my blogs at all? The references are in there.
Hi Mike - thanks for getting back to me. I wasn’t clear earlier. I was speaking specifically about the third part at the end, when you quote a Deaf person as saying they don’t want the school to close, etc.
I personally have seen many, many friends of mine be attacked at Deaf schools. I have always encouraged them to report their concerns, but I too often see these reports dismissed. A big part of that is not that administration and faculty don’t want to help - I doubt there’s anyone out there going “WANT SEE GIRLS RAPED!” But Deaf people in general aren’t exposed to the same kind of info hearing people get - about not showering, for example, about date rape, drugs, etc. So what happens - the crime happens, it isn’t reported for a long time, and there is little to no evidence by the time it does get to the administration.
You attribute the lack of reporting of these rapes to the individual’s love of their residential school. That’s the primary thrust of your argument, but I’m not sure it’s supported by what research you have done. For example, many other colleges have rape issues, at rates higher than Gallaudet reports. Yet hearing people don’t go to residential schools.
I believe the reason that individuals don’t come forward is a lot more complicated than just “I love my school!” and I am concerned that these other factors aren’t looked at in your report. I do feel there is quite a bit of room for accusations of mismanagement at schools - but this happens often in many other residential schools. The cure is information and bringing the info to light.
I’m told that the incidents at Gallaudet are vastly underreported.
But, it’s not too often when I see the following entry in the Washington Post’s crime blotter:
Sexual Assault
800 Florida Avenue NE
If you have read carefully you would see that there are more than one reasons why they don’t come forward - “…denial is fueled by everything from blaming the victim to believing that ‘the deaf don’t rat on other deaf.”
“It’s a bunker mentality. It’s very easy to be shunned in the deaf community,” said Sullivan, who has done extensive research about abuse of disabled children.”
And in part three I made it abundantly clear on other possible factors:
“Now, this may be somewhat an unfair description on why many do not report these sexual assaults. Other factors were involved compounding the problems with the constant history of rapes and sexual assaults. Some schools or college campuses had little or no support for the protection of students because they lacked the proper awareness or the educational means to inform the community. Victims were often too distraught to report a crime. Apathy sometimes compounded the problem. Threats from abusers prevented many victims from reporting to the proper authorities. Schools sometime had improperly planned protection of students or had poorly designed programs to help reduce the risk of crimes against students. Often times it was the embarrassing stigma of being a rape victim that prevented the victim from reporting or warn other students, even years later, about the perpetrator.”
McConnell:
In striving for balance, did you try reaching anyone at Gallaudet? At any of those schools for the deaf?
And is it really surprising that there’s a culture of fear, shame and self-accusation among the victims? One only need to look at 30 years of recent history with altar boys to see it’s practically universal experience with rape victims.
Nobody here is saying rape isn’t a problem at Gallaudet, but it’s hardly isolated to that campus. Swetha took a very broad look, but you’ve insisted that we take a microscope on schools for the deaf and Gallaudet? She’s saying “Rape” and you’re coming back with “Deaf Schools”? Why?
(And when taking the rosarchach test, does every blot look like the Tower Clock to you?)
*sigh*
Rape is rape. No excuse for it to happen anywhere in the world, including at residential schools or at Gallaudet University. But it does happen. Unfortunately.
Now, the topic was about “Rape as a weapon” and it’s a topic that has a general theme to it but specific that to rape means to exerts one power over a helpless victim. And so I included rape at schools and universities, specifically at Gallaudet and residential schools in my bloggings as part of this discussion.
Yes, two Gallaudet alumnus were a part of my interview about their rape experiences and of their friends who were not interested in coming forward who were also raped. I know them intimately which is why I felt the need to write a blog series about the rapes.
Now, when was the last time anybody discussed in a blog at length about rapes and sexual attacks, specifically at Gallaudet? Is this not an issue worth pursuing if I chose my subjects to be about Gallaudet and/or residential schools? About crime data? About the politics? About power? Just the same as it is equally pursuable about rapes that Swetha was talking about in other countries that are just as dreadful, if not more?
Why do I get the feeling that you are attacking me specifically because you didn’t like the way I wrote my blog about exposing a serious problems such as rape?
Hmmmm?
I never once said rape was an exclusive problem only to Gallaudet or schools for the deaf. Did I?
I rather get the info out, no matter how much it hurts even it means saving a few hapless victims from experiencing rape and raise the issue once more. Condemn me if you want for my actions out of concern for those who do not know any better.
Capische?
Yes, it was an attack on your thinking, I apologize. I re-read Swetha’s post and now I see that Gallaudet wasn’t so tangential after all. Thanks for sharing your blog entries, it wasn’t clear at first that your true intention was to help those who do not know any better.
I capische and comprendho. Looking forward to your post under Adam Stone’s latest (World Cup)… an opportunity to write about Gallaudet’s soccer team (they’ve gone like 5 wins & 100 losses the past five seasons).
Heh - i dont want to sound like im writing off your research - but for best practices id like to see a comparison with deaf/hoh experiences who are in mainstreamed programs or hearing schools. I remember reading a book about women who were mainstreamed and were raped, and were terrified of reporting anything because, well, youd have to get interpreters, and then everybody knows your business. I can’t remember the title - it was OLD! If anyone remembers this let me know.
just reread-so these were all interviews you conducted? people came to you? if you could provide statistics on your interviews that would be very interesting.
It is interesting to read those fruitful discussion on the subject of rape. Rape is never condoned under any circumstance, because it is a direct violation of human rights as mentioned in many of your comments above and, at least, in the United Nations charter.
However, rape occurs everywhere hearing and deaf alike. We are living in a structural, paternal, and hierarchical society. Those who occupy the top of the “food chain” are usually men. Rape has a little implication to men, because of gender construction of men as the “subject” and women as the “object”. Men do not know exactly what is it like to being an object. What contributes to men’s ignorance of pains endurce women when it comes to the subject of rape? Jane Roland Martin may explains that the problem is that women have not historically been included in any form of dialogue. Dialogue is essential to bridge and develop understanding of each other. With women being excluded from dialogue, the problem will emerge as Betty Friedan’s article pretty much says it all “the problem that has no name”. In short, women’s voice have not been historically heard. Women’s gender is constructed by the society, that is a society “runs” by men. Thus, with women as the “object” it is hard for men to fully grasp the emotional, mental, and intellectual pains of rape victims. Especially in the light of many women falsely claimed to be raped and/or raped women who, after being raped, still dress “fashionably sexy”.
For this reason, I feel that as long as history endurces the society, rape will always exist.
Turgid PC speak always makes my eyes glaze.
That said, rape is wrong, and does happen to members of both sexes and done by members of both sexes, so it is not necessarily a male versus female issue.
But it overwhelmingly happens to women.
Nonesuch, it makes your eyes glaze because you don’t get it at all. Yes, it is EXACTLY a male versus female *power* issue. Offenders know exactly what they are doing to women when they assault victims. A man’s greatest fear is to be raped by another man. Even the thought of being touched by another man, especially a strange man, makes most heterosexual men upset. So when a male offender rapes a woman, it’s because he CAN, and chances are he will get away with it, and that’s why he does it, and will do it again. For thousands of years, and today, men still rape women as an expression of power and oppression. If you can imagine a world where all the power is in the hands of women, I would think that the consequences for sexual assault would be severe, and men would be socialized from birth that it is taboo, like incest. I agree with Penny for Thought that raising awareness about rape will help somewhat, especially for women to recognize that they don’t need to be victims. I also agree that as long as society accepts patriarchy, rape will exist. That’s why it’s to everyone’s benefit to support equal rights for women. Think about it. Sexual assault victims are always someone’s daughter, sister, mother, wife, or girlfriend.
Nonesuch, you are right in a sense that rape does “necessarily a male versus female issue”. However, rape always involve the masculinity and femininity. What I mean is that rape always concerns the aggressive (masculinity) and the passive (femininity). When the society thinks of masculinity and femininity, the society often assigns the gender role to male and female respectively. Thus, male are expected to upheld masculinity role; whereas, women the feminity role.
Rape involves, as Curious Eyes mentions, power. Rapists clearly demonstrate their power over the rape victim(s) by sexually and foricbly assulting the rape victims. Evidently, this shows sociological power struggle of “who has the power?” The powerless are rape victims, as Noelle comments, who are “overwhelmingly happen to women.”
Rape is about power and control. It can happen to anyone at any age: man, woman, or child. It also happens in any culture, including the Deaf community. One out of every three individuals is a survivor of sexual assault. Most of the victims of sexual assault are women which is why there is a demand for advocacy services for women survivors. I often use breast cancer as an analogy. Breast cancer is a disease experienced by mostly women, but there are also few men with breast cancer. Same thing applies to rape–most of the victims/survivors are women. We have to remember that we still live in a paternalistic society.
The best way to stop sexual assault is social awareness. We also need to develop zero tolerance for rape. We also need to stop victim blaming(ie, she dressed too sexy or she drank too much). There is no excuse for rape and the burden should fall on the perpetrators. With the stigma on the victims removed, more survivors will come forward for help. I am always encouraging people to join sexual assault training at any rape counseling center to increase their awareness and sensitivity. The more involved we are in this movement to stop sexual violence, the closer we are to the goal of eradicating rape from our planet.
Anyone who claims that being a female is destiny for rape is a perfect example of backlash against our national and international efforts to create a world free of sexual violence. I have chosen not to respond to this back lashing person because I would rather be investing my time addressing the rape issues via advocacy, which includes system advocacy, like McConnell is trying to do. And as part of my system advocacy effort, I strongly encourage DeafDC to promote zero tolerance for backlash against women and rape survivors, so we can productively and constructively continue this important dialogue.
Julie Rems-Smario
Executive Director
DeafHope
I am passing this on for a colleague of mine. It is related to the rape topic:
Don’t give survivors of rape a lifetime sentence.
When a rape survivor enters the emergency room, she is not always given a chance to prevent unwanted pregnancy.
Support legislation that guarantees all rape survivors have access to emergency contraception following assault.
Imagine that your friend is the victim of sexual assault. She goes to the hospital for treatment and a month later, discovers that her assailant got her pregnant.
This situation happens all too often despite medical advancements, such as the Emergency Contraception pill (EC), that help survivors of rape prevent forced pregnancy. Rape victims often enter and leave the emergency room without ever being offered EC as an option by their doctors.
Take action to give victims of sexual assault the healthcare treatment they need!
What is EC? It is NOT the same as mifepristone, or RU 486, which terminates an already-established pregnancy. EC is a concentrated dose of ordinary birth-control pill that can dramatically reduce a woman’s chance of becoming pregnant if taken soon after sex or sexual assault.
To ensure emergency contraception is an option for all rape survivors, Congress has proposed the Compassionate Assistance for Rape Emergencies Act (”CARE”: S.1264/H.R.2928), which would guarantee that emergency rooms provide every woman with emergency contraception as an option following her assault. Sign the petition to support this legislation now!
Every rape survivor deserves the proper healthcare services to prevent unwanted pregnancy. Sign the petition asking your representatives to support the CARE act: http://go.care2.com/e/l5./Nm/N.....z00m=93876
Actually I agree with holmes and find nothing offensive about his comments. It appears he was being satirical and a good clue to that is the “get thee to a nunnery” comment in shakespeare’s english this is the same thing as calling a woman a whore. I understand his comments to mean “if you want to stop rape in war, then stop war” which essentially nullifies the argument made in this pointlessly stupid blog.
Its good to see you find a discussion on a socially relevant topic useless. The whole point was to get people to understand and realize how we have yet to learn from history and try to equip people with the proper knowledge and means to try an fight this ever rampant problem. Maybe that is asking too much…
It is not asking for too much. Also it does not only happen during war. It also happens during time of peace. I have worked in domestic and sexual assault field since 1990 and I can see social awareness greatly increasing. During late 90s, Abused Deaf Women Advocacy Services (ADWAS) trained 25 Deaf women in 15 states to establish domestic and violence services. Before that there was only one Deaf center for abused Deaf women. With training by Deaf women to Deaf women, we now have over 15 agencies running in our own country. Furthermore, this September I am flying to ADWAS in Seattle, WA, because they are opening the first transitional home building for Deaf women. I am going there to study how they did this great accomplishment to establish one in nothern California. Check http://www.ADWAS.org. Also check this link for information about other DV/SV agencies which mushroomed in our country during past 8 years. It starts with people who are fed up with this evert rampant problem–
http://www.deaf-hope.org/help/links.html. Trying to equip people with proper knowledge and means to try to fight this ever rampant problem is not asking too much.
Julie
Also I am glad that people talked about rape outside of war as well. It is a problem that still exists and every bit of help makes a difference to the victims..
I remember the female genital mutilation thing going on in the other part of the world but this is another culture shocker (see below) for me.
risk of sexual harassment and even rape, their mother Philomene Moungang started ‘ironing’ the girls’ bosoms with a heated stone. “>YAOUNDE, Cameroon (Reuters) - Worried that her daughters’ budding breasts would expose them to the risk of sexual harassment and even rape, their mother Philomene Moungang started ‘ironing’ the girls’ bosoms with a heated stone
I thought this was a great blog post about the rape incident in Iraq. In fact, the whole blog rocks (it’s written by an Iraqi woman living in Baghdad(?)).
Good blog entry– for more on rape in Iraq, here’s an excellent article by Ruth Rosen, a former professor at one of my schools. Worth a read…
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/38932/
Nice…and still this is the **alleged** rape-slaying incident where the body of the girl/woman cannot be exumed as part of the ongoing criminal investigation because of religious reasons by the gir/woman’s relatives.
Next time, put down “alleged rape incident” rather than say “rape incident”. It’s nice to see people presume guilt and not innocence before the investigation is even finished by wording it in so many ways. A rush to judgement on the presumption of guilt I’d say?
*shakes head*
If the investigation finds those soldiers guilty, then they face the full wrath by the court when the judge hands down the punishment. Those soldiers are innocent until *proven* guilty. Not the other way around.
Actually, one of them was arrested and confessed to the rape of the 14 year old child.
http://www.roadstoiraq.com/200.....%e2%80%9d/
Like Noelle said, a soldier admitted to rape. And if the body is not exhumable because of religious reasons, I think that should be respected. It may make the proving of the case just more harder.
Admitted, yes. I know but that doesn’t mean anything unless the investigation find conclusive evidences, aside from a confession, that he or other soldiers were directly involved. It seems to be a strong case. However, at any rate, it is still an alleged rape. Those soldiers are charged with the alleged rape, obstruction of justice, housebreaking, arson and the other offenses. We don’t even know for sure if a rape has really occurred even with the confession. Even the murder part, too. For one thing, it was also alleged that the soldiers drank alcohol. If those soldiers actually committed those crimes, then according to military court may face execution.
It is still innocent until proven guilty. That’s the key.
Im glad you brought this up. Rape is an ugly word to see, hear and live with. I support your thoughts on getting the world to recongize rape in third world countries, however, we need to recongize rape and violence in deaf women. I been told there isn’t enough support for deaf women to turn for help when they are raped. We need to help them break the silence of being raped.
I often find sexual assault statistics on prevention campaign posters very hard to believe.. one of the reasons is they tend not to tabulate or present the statistics more neatly.. but hide them in wording. Take for instance, “One out of three individuals is a survivor of sexual assault” Let us apply to this that 1) most victims/survivors are women. - from above 2) gender ratio in world population lies between 1.00 and 1.05 men/women - wikipedia. A rough approximation would yield that 2 out of 3 women have been sexually assaulted. This figure may be true.. i am not saying it isnt.. I merely doubt it without any substantiation. It seems absurd.